


Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

by Lucky107



Series: Only You (And You Alone) [1]
Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 04:45:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14730182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky107/pseuds/Lucky107
Summary: He sees a child deserving of a proper childhood—not whateverthisis.





	Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Wheaty needs a positive influence in his life.

Eli doesn't like to diminish the relationships that he's already forged within the Whitetail Militia because negative they most certainly are not, but the boy is at an age where 'boys will be boys' is no longer valid - and Eli just isn't cutting it.

He may be the one person in all of Hope County who voices his disappointment when Wheaty acts like a jackass teenager, but that's only because he's the one person in all of Hope County who knows Wheaty is better than that. But any anger or frustration - any _lessons_ he intends to teach the boy - dissipate the moment he opens his mouth.

All of his scolding words turn into mush on his tongue.

Eli resorts instead to asking him - _begging_ him - to correct his attitude and Wheaty swears up and down that he will.

It's dangerous to let the boy run wild, Eli knows, but when he looks at Wheaty he sees a child deserving of a proper childhood—not whatever _this_ is.

That's around the time that Sunny Regis comes into the picture.

Eli sets up the rendezvous on a whim.

Local survivalist Bo Adams gives him the tip: _potential Whitetail material - young, spirited, but temporary_. He enlists Wheaty as his second without a second thought before setting out to the Haskell Lookout Tower, where Sunny is reportedly stationed for the summer as a firewatch—

"Fire lookout," she corrects him smartly.

 _Mouthy little twirp_.

"First-year student in Fire Science at the University of Montana."

"Sounds hot," Wheaty interrupts.

"Right."

It takes all of Eli's restraint not to cuff Wheaty's ear for the juvenile comment, but it seems to leave a far stronger impression on Sunny than any of his small-talk because she looks up towards the tower in order to hide the light in her eyes.

He has to wonder what it is that Bo saw in Sunny that he would send Eli all the way up here.

It's only as night blankets the valley that she begins to let her guard down.

Tentatively, she offers Wheaty a pine cone from a white plastic pail beside her chair and suggests, "Toss this into the pit."

He does - and the pine cone ignites into a magnificent cerulean flame.

"What—"

"Copper," Eli hazards a guess.

The use of chemicals to change the colour of a flame is an old trick, but he's never seen it done with the use of a pine cone.

"That's right," Sunny confirms, the faintest trace of a smile shadowing the corners of her lips. "Copper chloride and water, soaked into the pine cones. It's easy enough. Got everything up in the tower; I could show you how it's done. That is, if your father's—"

"Eli's not my dad," Wheaty interrupts, but the words leave a bitter taste on his tongue. "I mean, no offense. Eli's a great guy— _you're_ a great guy, Eli. You're just like a father, to all of us—"

"Go on," Eli insists, punctuated with a chuckle. "You might actually _learn_ something for a change."

With Eli's permission, Wheaty follows Sunny up the stairs like a lost puppy.

That leaves Eli.

Sitting all alone beside the fire with a can of beer in his hand, he watches their silhouettes at play in the tower above him like he's watching a silent film. Seeing the two of them together makes him feel old, or maybe it just emphasizes how young they are.

And that's when his first impression of Sunny Regis begins to change.

Bo Adams did not send Eli all the way out to Haskell on a whim, but with a message: the Whitetail Militia is turning into an old boys' club and it's become stale. What the Whitetail Militia needs is to embrace a new generation of boys and girls who will become its future.

He knows in that moment that Sunny has no reason to join the Whitetails - she's a dedicated student working hard towards a future that will one day take her far away from rural Montana, he suspects. He also knows that his reason for asking are purely selfish, but it's been a long time since he's seen Wheaty act so... himself.

The boy's awe-struck by Sunny.

Just being in her presence strips away the layers of misguided anger and rebellion to reveal the boy's heart, gentle and still so childlike.

When Sunny returns, Eli feels compelled to ask her to join the Whitetail Militia anyway.

For Wheaty's sake.

"The what?"

"It's, uh... well, it's kind of silly, really," Eli finds himself retconning the proposition immediately. "We, uh... we refer to ourselves as survivalist, but skeptics like to throw the word 'prepper' around, like we're gearing up for the end of the world. We mostly just use it as an excuse to meet up and drink beer."

"Weekend warriors?" Sunny asks, hesitant, but that smile flickers in her features like a candle flame. "Think I can put it on a resume?"

"You can sure as hell try."

Sunny thinks a moment before deciding, "To the Whitetails, then."

They bump their beer cans together and share a drink.


End file.
